The legislature opened last week for its annual 45 day session and already started to pretend to represent Utahans on ethics reform.  For example, Senator John Valentine of Orem is pushing a bill to establish an independent ethics commission.  It is amazing that it took Valentine 22 years (yes, he has been in the legislature since 1988) to finally support an independent ethics commission.  Multiple bills have been offered in Valentine's time in the Senate that included creation of an ethics commission, but Valentine didn't support them.  Nor did other Republican leaders.  Why not?  Because he, and other Senate Republicans, don't want an independent ethics commission.  What they want is to pretend to support such a commission so they can stay one step ahead of voters who are demanding legislative accountability.

My prediction:  The Republican-controlled legislature will pass legislative-controlled ethics reform just like they did last year.  But then they will water down those reforms further once the ethics reform spotlight has passed on.  That's what they did with term limits.  Rather, than really allow the people to decide term limits, they passed term limits themselves.  Then, at a later date when the public had moved on to other issues, they rescinded their own legislation and removed the limits on their own terms.

That's why two changes are so critical this year:

 1.  Getting the ethics reform initiative on the ballot.   

Only the initiative offered by Utahns for Ethical Government keeps an adequate check on the legislature.  Valentine's measure is, as UEG put it, "a cynical, political ploy."  It would be ethics reform in name, but not in reality.  For example, the legislature's proposed ethics reform would require a citizen to be an eyewitness to an ethics reform violation before an ethics investigation can be carried out.  That would be difficult to accomplish, as Republican leaders well know.  That means, to their delight, very few if any ethics investigations coming from citizens.  Legislators don't have that requirement, but they almost never initiate ethics investigations against each other.  

Also, Valentine's bill would allow the investigation to be conducted in secret.  The public would be unaware an investigation was even going on.  In fact, if the complaint was even leaked by anyone, the investigation would automatically stop.  How is that accountability?  The legislature would have the opportunity (and the motive) to squelch an investigation that isn't in the public eye.

Why is that in Valentine's bill?  He and other Republican leaders want to protect legislators from unjust accusations.  That is the Republican leaders' real interest here - to protect themselves and their fellow legislators. That sure isn't accountability or transparency or assuring that the public's servants do the public's business.  It is all about protecting each other.  

2. Electing representatives who favor the ethics reform initiative and will bring back accountability to Utah government

Utah County Democrats will be fielding a group of candidates again this year who support the ethics reform initiative and, if elected, will bring a breath of fresh air to the state legislature.  Incumbents from Utah County have been some of the strongest opponents of ethics reform legislation and any other attempts to make themselves more accountable to constituents.  
It is time for fresh faces and new perspectives from people who are now citizens and not entrenched, unresponsive incumbents.

The legislature's efforts to undermine ethics reform once again suggest how critical these two tasks are for those of us who want real change and not the facade offered by Valentine and others.